‘Dangerous’ teen jailed for Cleckheaton sex attacks

A teenager has been branded dangerous by a judge who heard he attacked a woman walking her dog in Cleckheaton the day after he molested a schoolgirl in an alley.

Johnathan James Beech, 18, only stopped his attack on the woman when her pet intervened.

Beech was sent to a young offender institution for a total of eight years with a further extended four years on licence after Judge Robert Bartfield said at Leeds Crown Court on Monday he had to protect women from him “for the foreseeable future.”

Beech, of South Parade, Cleckheaton, admitted one charge of sexual activity with a child and one of sexual assault.

Richard Clews, prosecuting, told the court Beech approached the 33-year-old-woman walking her dog on waste ground on July 14.

She thought he was drunk or on drugs and he told her he had been “on the vodka.”

Initially he engaged her in “small talk” but then tried to touch her.

She told him to stop but he ignored her asking if he could have sex. She told him “certainly not” but that just made him “turn nasty.”

He told her: “You won’t have a choice in a minute.”

He was trying to pin her down while she was shouting “get off, get off.”

She was terrified. But the dog, thinking they were play-fighting, joined in, jumping on Beech and that distracted him. He got up and took her cigarettes from her bag before leaving.

He was arrested later that day. By then he was also wanted for the offence against a schoolgirl on July 13.

Mr Clews said he had first spoken to the girl in the street when she was just 12. He had called at her house but her father told Beech he was not welcome.

However on the day of the offence she was on her own when he spotted her in an alley and asked if she wanted to smoke cannabis with him.

She told him she did not do that and he then tried to kiss her. When she pushed him away he was not deterred and grabbed her, pushing her against a wall.

It was only when someone else walked into the alley he pretended he had been playing and she managed to escape. Both his victims described being scared to go out alone after their ordeal.

Gillian Batts representing Beech said his guilty pleas “are the acceptance of his wrongdoing.”

The reports about him indicated there was work which could be done with him and his abuse of alcohol and substances.

Sentencing, Beech Judge Bartfield said he knew the schoolgirl was not interested in his advances but that had not deterred him. The day after she was the victim he attacked the woman walking her dog who was “understandably petrified”. It may be she was in fact saved by the reaction of her dog. I conclude you are a dangerous individual.”

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